Nor the Battle to the Strong
In the Federation-Klingon War (2372-73) ' |image= |series= |production=40510-502 |producer(s)= |story= Brice R. Parker |script= René Echevarria |director= Kim Friedman |imdbref=tt0708493 |guests=Andrew Kavovit as Kirby, Karen Austin as Kalandra, Mark Holton as Bolian, Lisa Lord as Nurse, Jeb Brown as Ensign and Danny Goldring as Burke |previous_production=Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places |next_production=Trials and Tribble-ations |episode=DS9 S05E04 |airdate= 21 October 1996 |previous_release=Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places |next_release=The Assignment |story_date(s)=Unknown (2373) |group="N"}} |previous_story= Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places |next_story= The Assignment }} Summary Writing a profile on Dr. Bashir, Jake Sisko is traveling with him in a runabout when they get a distress call from a Federation colony under attack by Klingons. Sure that watching a doctor treating battle casualties will make for an interesting story, Jake convinces Bashir that they must go, despite concern over taking the 18-year-old Sisko to a battleground. Once they arrive, Jake is stunned by the sight of scores of wounded and dying people. But before Jake can process what he has seen, he and Bashir are asked to lend a hand to the overburdened medical team. Jake is put to work moving patients, and winds up exhausted and bloodied. Unfortunately, the team won't have much time for rest — the Klingons are supposedly regrouping and preparing to attack again. Jake hears that the Klingons will probably capture the settlement in two days, and he can barely hide his concern. Suddenly, the power goes out — the Klingons have disabled the reactor. With life-support knocked off-line, the patients are in grave danger. Bashir remembers the portable generator on the runabout, and he and Jake set off to get it, but when explosions rip into the ground around them, Jake panics and runs away. Fleeing aimlessly, Jake is mistaken for a Klingon by a dying soldier, who knocks him down with his rifle butt. Jake wants to get help for the man, thinking this will somehow change what he has done. Sadly, the soldier is too far gone, and Jake can only stay with him until he dies. Then he runs again. Sisko heads toward the imperiled settlement in the Defiant, but is days away from reaching the planet. Meanwhile, Jake returns to the cavern where the medical team is based, and, since no one saw him run away, pretends he was knocked out by the explosions. Bashir is angry at himself for putting Jake in danger, which only makes Jake feel worse. Talk of the imminent Klingon invasion only adds to it — and Jake angrily snaps at the gallows humor employed by the rest of the group as they await their fate. Bashir calls him outside to talk, but Jake is too ashamed of himself to admit to Bashir the truth about what happened, and refuses to talk at all. While Jake is sleeping, the Klingon force finally attacks. The medical team prepares to evacuate everyone through a long tunnel. The petrified Jake hides alone as explosions rock the compound. A guard defending the tunnel entry is shot and killed — and two Klingons begin to fire at Jake. In a panic, he grabs a weapon and starts firing wildly in the direction of the Klingons, closing the entrance of the cave in an avalanche of debris, some of which collapses on him. Later, Jake awakens to see Sisko and Bashir, who tell him that his actions stopped the Klingons and saved the patients. Jake, however, refuses to let himself off the hook. Instead of writing the article about Bashir, he writes about his own behaviour during the heat of battle, admitting that the line between courage and cowardice is thinner than he thought. Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan on Tuesday, April 27, 1999 - 8:51 am: Those honorable Klingons don't care much for cease fires, do they? Maybe these Klingons mistook the hospital for a legitimate target. # Why was Doctor Bashir allowed to waltz out of the hospital to lug back a generator? Shouldn't it have been one of the orderlies who went with Jake? It may sound cruel, but an orderly is an expendable person in such a situation, while a Doctor is a valuable commodity. There may not have been any orderlies spare at that point. # Starfleet certainly provides their soldiers with incredibly inefficient water containers. It didn't look like that container could hold very much and it spilled rather easily. Whatever happened to twentieth century style refillable canteens? Seniram Perhaps they’ve been destroyed by the Klingons! # John A. Lang on Tuesday, December 02, 2003 - 10:02 pm: There's an URGENT need to get the generator...so why are Jake & Bashir WALKING to the Runabout? Seniram Running could tire them out enough to prevent them from carrying the generator back without stopping. # Klank on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 2:33 pm: Why weren't there any security guards with them? I haven't seen this ep. in a long time so I can't remember if there were, but there should have been someone out there able to defend them. Mrcrusher (Mrcrusher) on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 - 12:04 pm: There weren't any security guards in the compound to send with them. # Joel Croteau (Jcroteau) on Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 9:10 pm: Why did they land the runabout? They said they couldn't beam down because the caves were made of some scattering metal that blocked their transporters, but couldn't they just beam down to the entrance of the cave, instead of landing a kilometer away? Seniram The scattering effect could extend to the area immediately outside the cave entrance. Notes Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine